Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

this mythopoetry is the glue that holds together our society. It is the mechanism we use to transmit important truths and values. It is where we learn about The Sacred.

Now, the literal historical "truth" of these stories is irrelevant. This is where the fundamentalists get it all wrong (along with a whole bunch of the New Atheists who seem willing to make exactly the same category error as the fundies and discuss mythopoetry as though historical accuracy was in any way relevant to it). Just as there can be Truth in Beauty, though finding "Facts" there might be tough.

One of the many examples Bateson uses is the parable of The Last Supper. He points out that he has no idea if a guy called Jesus sat down with 12 other folks on a given night as reported in the gospels. And to fixate on whether it happened, rather than examine the message of the story is bizarre (and arguably irrational and even a bit dangerous given the cultural repercussions).